Venona


The U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service, the precursor to the National Security Agency, began a secret program in February 1943 later codenamed VENONA

The mission of this small program was to examine and exploit Soviet diplomatic communications but after the program began, the message traffic included espionage efforts as well.

Although it took almost two years before American cryptologists were able to break the KGB encryption, the information gained through these transactions provided U.S. leadership insight into Soviet intentions and treasonous activities of government employees until the program was canceled in 1980.

The VENONA files are most famous for exposing Julius (code named LIBERAL) and Ethel Rosenberg and help give indisputable evidence of their involvement with the Soviet spy ring.

The first of six public releases of translated VENONA messages was made in July 1995 and included 49 messages about the Soviets' efforts to gain information on the U.S. atomic bomb research and the Manhattan Project. Over the course of five more releases, all of the approximately 3,000 VENONA translations were made public.

ImageTitle
 21SEP_KGB_AFFAIRS_MEXICO.PDF"STENLI'S" material on KGB affairs in Mexico 21 September (Release 5)
 20MAY_TAGORS_ARRIVAL.PDF"TAGOR's" arrival, "ALEKSANDR," "ARTUR" 20 May (Release 5)
 8DEC_TEKHNIK.PDF"TEKhNIK" 8 December (Release 5)
 19DEC_TEKHNIK_CLAUDE.PDF"TEKhNIK" and "CLAUDE" 19 December (Release 5)
 5APR_TERENTIJ.PDF"TERENTIJ" "ROZA-MARIYA" GODIN and "DOLIN" 5 April 1942 (Release 5)
 16SEP_TINAS_MATERIAL.PDF"TINA's" material on "ENORMUS" 16 September (Release 5)
 13MAR_EVENTS_IN_COLUMBIA.PDF"TORO's" report on events in Columbia 13 March (Release 5)
 11NOV_TOS.PDF"TOS", Zone Ending At The 100-Fathom Line
 8JUL_TRIO.PDF"TRIO" 8 July 1942 (Release 5)
 18JAN_TSERBER.PDF"TSERBER" asks Silvermaster how to re-establish contact with GRU
 15JUL_UCN39.PDF"UCN 39" and "POET" 15 July 1942 (Release 5)
 21NOV_ULRIK.PDF"ULRIK" Reports Naval and Military Intelligence from Germany and Norway 21 November 1943 (Release 5)
 24NOV_VALERIAN.PDF"VALERIAN" meets "ORESTES" in Scotland: "ORESTES" introduces him to "MOUNTAINEER" 24 November 1943 (Release 5)
 20JAN_VALERIAN.PDF"VALERIAN" ordered to Helsinki on official business
 16MAR_VALERIAN_TALKS_TO_VICTOR.PDF"VALERIAN" talks to "VIKTOR" about a Soviet pasport for "DUNYa" 16 March (Release 5)
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